Re: What I think is a shame

If journalists called someone out or did some real critical analysis, they'd lose "access" to all those anonymous sources and/or take a hit to their social standing. Only a person who writes a gossip column should be that chummy with a source.

"Hot news"

Don't forget, AP has tried to push the idea for years that they own "hot news" content, regardless of source or copyright. Think of the money to be made suing people for linking to non-AP content if it happens to fall under their interpretation of the "hot news" doctrine!

Extortion racket

Lamar Smith thinks that only Google opposes SOPA because that was the entire point of the legislation - to get Google to start dumping piles of money into campaigns in order to get the legislation killed. They see Google's market cap and start salivating. Of course, Google isn't playing that game and Hollywood et al does, "giving" more than a twelve times more to Congress than the tech sector. That's how Congress works - propose something odious and rake in the cash to get it killed. "You's got a nice Internet here, shame if anything was to happen to it."

Registrar transfers are not instantaneous

As anyone who's tried to move away from GoDaddy can tell, transferring to another registrar is not a instantaneous process. GoDaddy could be sitting on thousands of transfers out for the maximum number of days allowed while processing all transfers in as soon as received. Other registrars also accused them of providing incomplete records in transfer, causing further delays. I helped a friend move from them months ago and it look weeks, because confirmation emails with the necessary auth codes required by GoDaddy were never sent (it was to my mail server, so I could see the logs that no attempts to send were ever made).

Inaccurate charges

They should charge him for what they are really upset about: contradicting and/or embarrassing the police via audio and/or video. They could expand that to any sort of public official or institution, if needed to get them on board to change the laws.

Re: 2D movie please

Many years ago I worked as a projectionist at a theater that had $1.50 second run movies. This was when the full price was around $6. We were the most profitable theater in the chain due to concession sales, apart from the drive-in which sold burgers, pizzas, nachos, etc. Concessions is the prime way theaters make money - most of the ticket price goes back to the studios on a sliding percentage based on the number of weeks the film has been released. That's why studios also like to have one or two huge weekends at the highest rate, then cut the number of screens so they can maximize their percentage on their next release. The theaters, however, have no leverage to change this.

Experts

Who needs the opinions of experts when lobbyists have truckloads of cash to hand out?

Public financing of elections, blind trusts for their personal wealth and strict bans on hiring family members of politicians, lobbying by former politicians, or politicians retiring to join companies whom they had previously written laws governing (and the reverse, getting elected to assist your current employer) would help put a stop to some of this. There's way too much money and personal enrichment in US politics.

Re:

Large corporations will be the only ones with 1st and 4th Amendment rights soon if things continue the way they are. I wonder what justification Congress or the courts will use to grant voting rights to corporation... Their votes will have to be weighted so as not to discriminate against them, of course. Number of employees or market cap on election day?

The saddest thing is...

..now that she's made a video and a complaint, she'll be subjected to enhanced pat-downs every time she flies. Complaining about security is a sign that you are a potential terrorist threat, after all.

Who are Righthaven's lawyers?

Has anyone looked into who Righthaven's lawyers are and their backgrounds? Such as, are they sloppy with details because they are so aggressive, or are they just sloppy? Maybe their specialty is in some other area of law and they are in way over their heads when it comes to federal or copyright law?